SRS Annual Lecture 2026: Historical fiction/Ficsean stairiúil: telling stories of early modern Ireland

This roundtable discussion brings together critics and writers to discuss the challenges and opportunities of historical fiction, and specifically, how to write historical fiction about Ireland in a period so dominated by tales of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, of Shakespeare, of Thomas Cromwell, of Hamlet and Hamnet. What can historical fiction teach us about the past? What makes for ‘authentic’ historical fiction? How does fiction about early modern Ireland write ‘against the grain’, write the experience of colonialism, of ‘rebellion’, countering the grand narratives of Elizabethan glory? How does historical fiction for children intersect with the teaching curriculum when it comes to this period?

This is a bilingual event (English and Irish).

The contributors are Prof. Marie-Louise Coolahan (University of Galway), Dr Deirdre Serjeantson (University of Cambridge) and author Liam MacCóil (author of the Lucas Ó Briain trilogy, An Litir; I dTír Stráinséarach and Bealach na Spáinneach), who will also read from his work.

This event is the Annual Lecture event of the Society for Renaissance Studies (UK and Ireland), in collaboration with the National Library of Ireland.